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Sunday, January 30, 2011

An Open Letter to M. Night Shyamalan Re: The Last Airbender

Dear Mr. Shyamalan,

In 1999, you made a fantastic movie starring Bruce Willis named The Sixth Sense. That was a perfect example of mind-messery. It was a real success. You had people believing that you were the next Hitchcock. And maybe you could have been.
Let's skip forward a few years, to when you made Lady in the Water. It failed, no? But that couldn't have been enough to quash the feeling that you wanted to make another fantasy sort of film. After that one, you made The Happening. No one seemed to like that movie. Which is a real shame, since it has Marky Mark and Zooey Deschanel in it. Now you had people believing that you were the next Uwe Boll.
In 2010, you released a movie called The Last Airbender. You had everyone looking forward to it because it had such beloved source material.
But you fucked it up, big time.
You see, when it comes to doing a film filled to the brim with special effects and CGI, you really have to be a master at that. You don't want to ever just throw effects around willy nilly. It distracts from the story, which is never really a good thing. Another thing that distracts from the story, which I'm sure is very simple and straight-forward, is the way that it's told. It's damn near impossible to have a clear idea of what is going on at some points.
﻿﻿

The nice young boy in the lead role is totally miscast.

﻿﻿You've probably heard about the cast of your movie. If the original cartoon had Asians, then why didn't you cast Asains? In fact, why were all these different races thrown around when they all should have been one? Beats me. And I know that the cast were young, but you could have at least directed them to act better than they did. In conclusion, your live action version of The Last Airbender was a mess. I don't even want to imagine what it was like in 3D.
Mr. Shyamalan, I want you to know that I do not hold anything against you. You probably worked very hard on this film. But it just sucked. I'm sorry, but its true.

Yours sincerely,

Stevee

P.S. I'm sure you're aware that you have been nominated for the following Razzies: Worst Picture, Worst Supporting Actor and Actress, Worst Eye-Gouging Mis-Use of 3-D, Worst Ensemble, Worst Director, Worst Screenplay and Worst Remake. I wish you every success at these awards.